Wednesday, 31 December 2014

India is a country with
diverse regions, languages, castes, religions and races. As a nation, India has
been in the forefront for propagating values like ‘unity in diversity’ and
pride in multiculturalism, both in the national and international forums. India’s contribution to the struggle against
apartheid in South Africa can never be forgotten. But in practice, Indians have
failed to accept and respect its heterogeneity resulting in the social exclusion
of ‘others’. This social exclusion is often the result of discrimination based
on race or differences based on physical attributes such as colour of the skin,
facial structures etc.

Though racial discrimination is prohibited by law and may
not be practised at the institutional level, but its effects in everyday life
are regularly experienced by people from ‘other’ ethnic groups who live in a different
geographical or social landscape. For example, there is an anti-Bihari
sentiment across the country, a South Indian is called “Madrasi” and a person
from North East is called ‘chinki’. These are just few of the many cases. There
is also a never ending prejudice against black or dark-skin, always giving preference
to a fair-skinned person, in India.

To
exclude racism, various groups and experts have demanded the enforcement of an
exclusive anti-racism law. However this demand is much in debate as the other side
of the argument is that racism is a social problem that exists in the minds and
attitudes which cannot be addressed unless the minds of the people are
connected through integration and promotion of cultures of other ethnic groups.

Injustice inflicted by racism

Indians
often see themselves as victims of racism, inflicted particularly by the West.
However time and again, Indians have themselves been perpetrators of race based
violence towards others whom they consider as inferior.

State
of North Easterners in Metro Cities

Death of a 19 year old student Nido Tania; physical
assault of an engineering student in Bangalore and attack on two youths by few locals
in Gurgaon are still fresh in our memory. Though these are three different
tragedies, what is common to all these incidences is the shameful fact that these
are racist crimes committed against the North East people in mainland India.

According to a police record, the national capital has
witnessed a rise in racial crimes against people from the North Eastern Region
(NER). Out of 847 phone calls this year (till mid November), the police
received 650 calls concerning racial discrimination against the people from
NER. The Bezbaruah
Committee that was set up under the chairmanship of
Mr. Bezbaruah to look into the racial issues faced by the North Easterners, highlights
that over two lakh people have migrated to Delhi from North Eastern states
between 2005 and 2013 and about 86% of them have faced some form of racial
discrimination.

Anti-Bihari sentiment

There have been several racial attacks against people
from Bihar who migrated to other parts of India mainly for employment. However
they have been subjected to severe social exclusion in other states. Between
2000 and 2003, anti-Bihari violence led to the deaths of upto 200 people and
created 10,000 internal refugees (MS Academic, 2012).

In February 2008, migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
who settled in Mumbai for jobs were charged of being ‘infiltrators’ and accused
of spoiling the Maharashtrian culture. Orchestrated riots and anti-migrant
political campaigns routinely target migrants from other states and protest
their presence in the city, even today.

Outsiders vs Tribals in North East

There have been series of massacres and bomb attacks on
migrants from other states even in the North East. Discrimination and violence
faced by ‘outsiders’ or ‘non-tribals’ in the North East have continued for a
very long time, resulting in declining population of ‘non-tribals’ in Meghalaya,
from 20% when the state was formed to below 10% (Tehelka).

An ‘outsider’ is called a ‘Dkhar’ in khasi, a pejorative
term for people from other ethnic groups including Bengalis, Nepalis, and
Biharis.

Targeting ‘Black’

African nationals are stereotyped as drug peddlers or sex
workers in India. They are made victims of derogatory remarks like ‘negro’ or
‘kale’ (black), physically abused on the streets, and are also made victims of
administrative (like police) apathy. The most recent demonstration of this is
the brutal assault of African students in one of the metro stations of Delhi.
These students protested being photographed by few local youths. In response, the
African students were attacked by the locals and alleged of misbehaving with a
woman, without any evidence. The victims sought police protection, but in vain.

Anti Racism Law in India: the debate

Need for an anti racism law

Article 15 of the Indian Constitution prohibits any race-based
discrimination by the state. Such a fundamental right like Article 15 guarantees
protection to victims of racial crimes committed by the state but fails to
guarantee protection from private individuals. Additionally, anti-discrimination
legislation also fails to acknowledge racism that is ‘invisible’ and executed
through certain tone or gesture.

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention
of Atrocities) Act is one of the foremost anti-discrimination legislations in
India. Though the act protects significant number of persons from the North-East
as majority belong to the Scheduled Tribes, it fails to protect non tribal from
the region and other communities in India who are victims of xenophobia.

Recognising these gaps in the existing domestic laws, there
have been demands for an anti-racism law from various groups and activists. However,
the prospects of an anti racism law should be looked at holistically, such that
it is able to tackle the issue and protect the interests of every vulnerable
individual and group, both national and non-nationals, without being biased towards
a particular group. One has to also see whether an
exclusive law like this can eradicate every form of racism? Xenophobic
exclusions and other forms of ethnicity-based discrimination are legally forbidden
in the United States, yet it continues through indirect forms of expression, prevalent
as ‘symbolic racism’ or reflected in socioeconomic inequalities like employment opportunities, homeownership, and income
levels etc. For example, there is disparity in homeownership between
African-Americans and the Whites, which is an indicator of the racial wealth
gap, according to a recent study from Brandeis University.

The other side of the debate- need to strengthen existing
legislations

Contrary
to the advocates of anti-racism law in India, there are activists and groups who
suggest correcting and strengthening existing legislations on anti
discrimination. According to Mr. Bezbaruah, the chairperson of the Bezbaruah
Committee, “We need a quicker solution because these crimes are increasing
rapidly, when they should be decreasing.” In his views, the “introduction of
fresh legislation would be lengthy; the government must consider swift reform
of existing laws.”

The
Bezbaruah committee recommended adding sections to India’s Penal Code,
including making a “word, gesture or act intended to insult a member of a particular
group or of any race, punishable with a maximum of three year jail sentence and
a fine.” The other recommendation from the committee includes setting up designated
courts to deal with racial conflicts, making Police more responsible and
increasing role of media, NGOs, private sector in addressing the issue
together. Promotion of other cultures and spreading awareness amongst people
about various social groups and culture is necessary to curb the problem.

In a survey poll carried out by the Morung
Express, a Nagaland based newspaper, majority of the people said an anti racism
law is unlikely to protect the people of North East from racial discrimination.
“Racism is a social problem and it can only be solved at the societal level……………Only
a paradigm shift in societal attitude will minimise racial discrimination.”

Racism is a social problem

Racism originates from intolerance towards other cultures
to faulty prejudices against them. Since the ethnic minority or an individual belong
to a different social landscape, their behaviour and lifestyle is absolutely unknown
to others who develop wrong perceptions about them. There is an utmost need to
address racism not just through legal discourse but also through sensitising people about other ethnic
groups and cultures. It is essential to deconstruct faulty perception and half
truth that have been passed on through incorrect narratives. Role of universities, media, sports and
tourism become crucial in creating awareness and integrating people (both
national and non-nationals) of different background.

Racism
is India has a very long history; however there has been lack of voice against such injustice.
We all have to accept our share of the responsibility in supporting racism
either by pretending that it does not exist or by preferring to stay silent on
the issue. There has to be zero tolerance towards racial discrimination not
because it is against ‘our’ people but because it is against human dignity.
Academics, thinkers, artists,
writers, activists, journalists, professionals and students must challenge any
form of discrimination through debates, discussions, writings, complains and
protests.

Strengthening
law enforcement agencies and institutional support also becomes significant. Attitude
of the police, who are often charged of harassing victims of racial slurs, needs
to change. As also recommended by the Bezbaruah Committee, concerned state and
central government bodies like state bhawans, should play a more proactive role
in providing support to migrants. Fast track courts should be set up in States,
exclusively to handle crimes committed on grounds of race.

Time to put an end to ‘Racism’

India's contribution to the struggle against apartheid in
South Africa has been highly acknowledged globally.Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Pt. Jawaharlal
Nehru, as a national ideology, India has shown an uncompromising attitude
towards any form of institutional racism. However this pride and India’s own
freedom struggle becomes meaningless as long as racism exists, even if at an
individual level.

Racism is a form of exploitation and it will continue to
exist as long as we deal with the problem half heartedly. Resorting to
legalistic means cannot be ignored, but complete eradication of this problem is
only possible when people develop solidarity towards their countrymen and also
non-nationals, by destroying artificial differences on the grounds of culture,
language, physical features and colour.

Thursday, 18 December 2014

Madhya
Pradesh and Rajasthan together have more than 2.45 crore tribal population
divided into 46 and 12 groups respectively. Seven tribal groups in Madhya
Pradesh and one in Rajasthan what is termed as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal
groups or PVTGs (earlier called Primitive Tribal Groups or PTGs). Sahariya is
one among these PVTGs inhabits eight
districts of Madhya Pradesh and few places in Rajasthan. According to Census
2011, Sahariya is the largest community in the list of 75 PTGs with a
population of more than seven lakh. Around 85 per cent of Sahariyas live in Gwalior,
Guna, Shipuri, Vidhisha, Datia, Bhind, Sagar and Tikamgarh districts of Madhya
Pradesh. The government of India recognized the vulnerability of Sahariyas in
1975-76 by including them in PTGs but in the late end of the 20th Century, the
enforcement of environmental laws, insensitive displacement, schemes for
mainstreaming and ignorance of their vulnerabilities as PTG marginalized them
further.

Livelihood of Sahariyas:

Traditionally Sahariyas
are forest dwellers. They
practiced shifting cultivation, hunting gathering, pastoralism, and a quiet nomadic
life. Similar to many other PTGs, Sahariyas had also
close link with forest and forest product for their livelihood. They practiced
agriculture in mountains and during non-agricultural season, they collected
forest products. According to a study conducted by Vikas Samvad, Bhopal in 2007,
Sahariyas used to barter forest product like Gums and Chironji with that of
cereals and also used to prepare baskets out of ‘Siari’ wood to store their
half yearly requirement. Sahariya’s economy before the enforcing of
environmental laws was self-sufficient and was in harmony with the local
ecology.

After government took over
the control of forest, Sahariyas lost their main source of livelihood. Vikas
Samvad in its study of Madhya Pradesh argues that the government policy on
forest wiped them from forest and forest products. According to the Census 2001
data, more than 70 per cent of Sahariyas are non-cultivators. Most of them are
agricultural labourers. A study by the Centre for Tribal Development in 2002
reported that the annual per capita income among Sahariyas was Rs. 2,691, or
about Rs 7 a day, less than one-third of the national poverty line figure of
Rs. 26 a day in rural areas. Curtailing forest rights of Sahariyays, through
environmental policies, what they were inheriting since ages destroyed their
existence. On the other hands government’s un-planned, insensitive and
shortsighted rehabilitation and development plan for Sahariyas pushed them to
further deprivation.

Major Visible Vulnerabilities

Modern development initiatives in
India in last few decades undermined socio-cultural diversities of PTGs such as
Sahariya. Despite recognizing the vulnerabilities of PTGs in 1970s their voices
remain unheard in developmental programs targeted to them. It seems that in
last few decades their vulnerability increased instead of decreasing. Some of
these vulnerabilities are discussed here in brief.

Starvation:

After losing control over
production of grains and accessing food item through their traditional barter
system in last few decades, Sahariyas are now facing starvation situation on
every day basis. Due to scarcity of food, they rely on ‘tubers’ and ‘leaves’
collected from nearby forests. When drought hits and there is nothing to eat,
Sahariyas depend on bread made of ‘Sama’ (a locally grown wild grass) and soup
made from its seeds. Very often even this grass is not fit for consumption as
it doesn’t ripen due to lack of water , which make them difficult to digest.

High
Malnutrition:

Insufficient food has led to wide
spread malnutrition amongst every age group of Sahariays. Action Aid India
reported that the malnutrition level among Sahariya children under three is as high
as 66.3%, which is much higher the national average of 47%. Many such other
studies of Sahariyas revealed high level of undernourishment and hunger deaths.
According to a paper inquiring status of women and children of Sahariyas of
Madhya Pradesh published in Indian Medical Journal in 2013 found that Chronic
Energy Deficiency (CED) affected 42.4 percent women whereas 90.1 percent women
were anemic. In their study, Kapoor et al (2009) noted that CED amongst males
was about 48.8 percent. As per World Health Organization a CED of 40 percent
exhibits a critical health problem.

Poor
Health:

Curative health care is not an
option for most. In most cases, health centers are very far away from Sahariya
villages. Moreover, many report being callously treated at the health centers
by the staff. Many times Sahariyas are not aware about what they are being
prescribed. Therefore, most times,’ quacks are preferred. Empirical studies
have found that major causes of death include pneumonia, malaria, tuberculosis,
gastric problems and diarrhea. Low standard of living, poor food habits, low
socio-economic conditions, lack of portable water and unfavorable environment
all contribute to poor health standards.

Low
Education and Child Labour:

Sahariyas do not have access to
education; Census data reveals that only 2 per cent of Sahariyas have studied until
the secondary level. The literacy rate of Saharia both in Rajasthan and in
Madhya Pradesh is the lowest amongst all the tribes in these states. In
Rajasthan the tribal literacy rate is 52.8 whereas Sahariya literacy rate is 48
percent. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh has a tribal literacy rate of 50.6 whereas
the Sahariya literacy is recorded at 42.1 percent. Women literacy amongst the
Sahariyas is much less with Madhya Pradesh at 32 and Rajasthan at 33.7 percent
respectively.

Hindustan Times recently reported
that children, instead of being sent to school are working to sustain their
families. Increasing debt due to crop failure and food insecurity forces
families to send their children to work
for wages ranging between INR 2000-6000. The children are employed to herd
sheep and other animals in the jungles of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Conclusion:

Even after being identified as a
PTG group, policies dealing with Sahariyas have not kept in mind the features
that make them an especially primitive group. However, continuous ignorance of
their culture continuous to feature in the way government is formulating
response to them. As mentioned earlier, they are frequently ill treated, which
marginalizes them further. Moreover, when they access government services, the
nourishment provided is not suited to their dietary practices. Children cannot
digest or do not prefer panjeeri and soya buffs. The reason a special category
of tribes was created was so that policies are customized to their lifestyle.
Thus, the developmental approach of Saharaiyas must emphasize an effort to
understand their social, cultural and economic conditions that make them a
Primitive Tribal Group.

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

India is one of the first countries in the world to
have formulated family planning programmes.
Family planning programmes like mass sterilisation in India were introduced in
response to the booming population . However it is female sterilisation (tubectomy)
which has always been prevalent over male sterilisation (vasectomy) or other
contraceptive methods.

Recently, in one of the worst medical disasters in
India’s history, many women lost their lives in a mass sterilisation camp organised
in Chhattisgarh. Family members of the victims have reported how women were
pressurised to undergo sterilisation. Mahesh, brother-in-law of one casualty,
told the Indian Express newspaper, “They [health workers] said nothing would
happen, it was a minor operation. They herded them like cattle.”

However, this is not one of the rare cases where mass
sterilisation camp has killed women. Between 2003 and 2012, as estimated by various
reports, thousands of women died in sterilisation camps organised in various
states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh.

Violating all medical guidelines, sterilisation camps
like the one in Chhattisgarh and others are often found to have used contaminated
medicines, rusted surgical equipments and unhygienic environment. Guidelines
which set the maximum limit of surgeries to 30 a day, have often been ignored
by doctors in sterilisation camps, were the operations outnumber the limit. The
cause of such tragedies can be related to sheer medical negligence, apathy of
doctors towards patients, poor state of health services in India and above all
violation of women’s rights over their bodies.

The District Level Household and
Facility Survey (DLHS) in 2007–08
revealed that over 35 per cent of married women in the the reproductive age group ( 15–49 years)
had undergone tubectomy, as against 1 per cent of men who have undergone
vasectomy. This is despite the fact that
Tubectomy as an irreversible method of birth control is a more complex procedure
than vasectomy.

In this light, it is important to
comprehend the relationship between family planning in India and female
sterilisation.

No choice for women: Social pressure, national targets

The
DLHS data in 2012-13 have also indicated State Governments preference on female
sterilisation over other contraceptive methods in India’s family planning
programmes. For example, in Andhra Pradesh, during 2007-2008 and 2002-2013, 60
and 63 per cent women in the fertile age range had been operated respectively.
However, during the same period, the number of men who underwent sterilisation,
came down from 4 to 2 per cent. A similar trend was observed across many states
in India.

This
trend can be traced to the deep rooted social belief that the primary role of women
is that of reproduction and child
rearing. Instead of looking at family planning as a responsibility of both men
and women, family planning programmes in India have been directed at women by
and large. Added to this there is a
tremendous social stigma attached to male sterilisation. Along with the fear of
impotency, physical weakness, “it becomes a question of manhood”, says Rukmini,
a District Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Officer from Karnataka.
“Unfortunately social stigma nearly always ensures the fairer sex is the
subjugated lot…………….where women are more likely to go under the knife rather
than men.”

(The
Hindu)

In
a patriarchal society, women usually have little autonomy within and outside
the household; they also have limited control and no voice over their own
reproductive and contraceptive choices. Hence they are always made easy targets
of family planning programmes. For most women, sterilisation is not a choice,
it is a diktat. Thus women are forced to undergo sterilisation, sometimes
without their knowledge or opportunity to provide consent. According to the
DHLS 2007-08, 40 per cent of women who got operated across India were
illiterate. When women are poor and uneducated, they are more vulnerable, and are
easily persuaded to accept the painful and irreversible contraceptive method
through financial or other incentives. They are forced to undergo sterilisation
either by authorities responsible for family planning programmes or by family
members who are in need of monetary benefits. Women are convinced to undergo
surgeries by luring them with cash incentives. “The husband of a Baiga tribe
woman who died after undergoing tubectomy at a government-organised
sterilisation camp in Bilaspur district alleged that health workers put
pressure on them and also held out a promise of money for consenting to the
operation.” (India Today) This is nothing but grave violation of women’s
rights.

In
2012-13, the District Level Household and
Facility Survey highlighted poor quality family planning services which
were offered to women. Women were not informed about the side-effects of
sterilisation or about other methods of contraception. Even where women were counseled,
the staff strategically refrained from giving adequate and correct information.
For example, in Maharashtra, only 17 per cent of the women were told about the
side-effects, while in Punjab and Haryana only 14 per cent and 11 per cent women
respectively were given any information related to other methods of contraception.
Hence majority of these women could not have provided "informed
consent" due to lack of awareness and knowledge.

“The government of India denies that
there are targets but they’re clearly set and when it goes down to the district
or village level that’s a real problem. Extreme pressure is the crux of the problem,”
says Sona Sharma, joint director for advocacy at the New Delhi-based Population
Foundation of India. Senior
officials sometimes threaten health workers of reducing remuneration or suspending
them from work. “Health workers who miss sterilisation targets because they
give proper counseling and accurate information about contraception risk losing
their jobs in many parts of the country,” said Aruna Kashyap, women’s rights
researcher at Human Rights Watch.

To
achieve the desired target, in some districts, more than the prescribed numbers
of tubectomies are performed single handedly by a medical practitioner in
unhygienic and inappropriate conditions. As a perk, compensation is given to service
providers as well as acceptors of sterilisation. Unofficially
material benefits are also given to health workers and agencies organising
sterilisation camps. In 2011, service
providers in Rajasthan were reported to have been offered motorcycles,
television sets, even Tata Nano cars.

Reproduction and contraception is
for women: the social perception

In a study carried out in central
India about the men’s perception of contraception, it was found out “Men viewed
"family planning" as synonymous with female sterilization, whereas
they saw "contraception" as referring to spacing methods, knowledge
of which was limited. Thirty-four percent of men reported that their wives had
been sterilized; 79% of men who did not rely on any permanent method said they
wanted their wives to be sterilized. In focus group discussions, most men
reported themselves as their family's sole decision maker about reproductive
health.” (Male Perceptions on Female Sterilization: A Community-Based Study in
Rural Central India by Arundhati Char, Minna Saavala and Teija Kulmala).

Female sterilisation being dominant, use of other
spacing methods like Intrauterine Device (IUDs), condoms are limited,
despite the fact that there is a high unmet need in spacing. According
to DLHS III, all the spacing methods together account for just 25.5 per cent of
the current contraceptive use, compared to female & male sterilisations which
account to 75.5 per cent. Social and cultural acceptability of female
contraceptives over male contraceptives have also set a high competitive bar on
pharmaceutical industry and research that is prepared to invest more on the
former than the latter. According to RH Reality Check (a daily publication
providing news, commentary and analysis on sexual and reproductive health and
justice issues) “research on male contraception is 50 years behind research on
female contraception.”

Need to re-look at nation level population programmes
from women’s perspective

It
is a common perception shared by society that reproduction, and therefore
contraception, is the responsibility of a woman. Despite all talks of
empowering women and their reproductive autonomy, the right to choose whether
to have children or not and the freedom to choose the methods of fertility
management, based on access to proper information, has been largely denied to
them. This gets translated in the family planning programmes and practices as
well. It is sad that it is only by the death of several women in a botched up
attempt at sterilisation that the whole issue has been bought to the fore.

It
is time for the nation to understand that fundamental to the success of any
family planning programme is the enhancement of women’s freedom and it should
involve both men and women in its population stabilisation goal. More men
should be involved in family planning programmes “not as targets for vasectomy
but as partners within a gender-equality paradigm,” says Dr Abhijeet Das,
Director of CHSJ and an assistant professor at the Department of Global Health,
University of Washington.

The
need of the hour is to look at India’s population programmes from the
perspective of the women who are forced to suffer its consequences. In
addition, there is an urgent need to improve public health services in India,
make doctors and health agencies more accountable and eliminate coercive family
planning porgrammes, to ensure that women in Chhattisgarh or any other place do
not become victims of faulty sterilisation drive!

Thursday, 13 November 2014

Every year about 0.76 million neonatal
deaths (death within one month of the birth) occur in India, which accounts for
28 percent of such death in the world, the greatest for any country. About
two-thirds of infant deaths and half of under-five child deaths are during the
neonatal period. India’s Neonatal
Mortality Rate (NMR) stands at 29 deaths per 1000 live birth, and the states at
high risk include Madhya Pradesh (39), Odhisa (39), Uttar Pradesh (37),
Rajasthan (35) and Chhattisgarh (31).
Though the Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) has declined from 52 per 1000
live births in 1990 to 29 per 1000 live births in 2012 (SRS 2012) the declining
rate has been very slow as compared to many other developing countries and
emerging economic states.

A latest report ‘State of India’s
Newborn 2014’ released by Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) reveals the
health disparities among newborns of various communities in India. According to
the report, health outcomes are shaped not just by biological factors but also
by the social, economic, and cultural environment. Social hierarchies and
inequitable distribution of resources produce significant inequalities in the health
and well being of people.

Considering the health inequality and
social inequality interface, the poorest and most disadvantaged have a higher
risk for diseases. This includes the urban and rural poor, female children,
specially-abled persons, and traditionally marginalized and excluded
communities like Scheduled Tribes (STs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), and ethnic and
religious minorities. They also have a higher probability of being excluded
from the health services. The PHFI report states that the newborn in these
populations are expected to be the most vulnerable to morbidity and mortality. It
is evident from the empirical data on Indian neonatal and child mortality that
mortality is high among children of these socially disadvantaged and
economically deprived communities. The report by Public Health Foundation of
India has also emphasized on identifying such communities. The report says that
doing this will help in identifying entry points for action and setting
priorities for long-term improvement in neonatal survival.

High Risk Communities

High Risk Communities

Status of Neonatal Deaths

Rural Population

In rural
areas, neonates are at two times more risk of dying, as compared to their
urban counterparts. Data has recorded Neonatal Mortality Rate as high as 33
deaths per 1000 live birth in rural India as compared to 16 for urban areas.

Source:
SRS

Women

As children get older, probability of
female mortality becomes higher than the males. Females have 36 percent
higher mortality than males in the post neonatal period, but a 61 percent
higher mortality than males at age 1-4 years.

Source:
NFHS-3

Dalits and Adivasis

Child born in
a SC family has 13 per cent higher risk of dying in the neonatal period and
18 percent higher risk of dying in the post-neonatal period, as compared to
others. Similarly, a child born in a ST family has 19 per cent higher risk of
dying in the neonatal period and 54 percent risk of dying in the post
neonatal period.

Source:
UNICEF

Educationally Disadvantage Section

Children born to a mother with at
least eight years of schooling have 32 percent lesser chance of dying in
neonatal period and 52 per cent lesser chances in the postnatal period, as
compared to illiterate mothers.

Source:
UNICEF

Newborn
Care Practices among High-risk Communities

Given the diversity of India, each
community and region have their own local newborn care practices. Most of these
practices are strong and legitimate, since they originate from local culture,
environment and religion. Some of them are also based on traditional medical
knowledge of the community regarding pregnancy and neonatal care. Traditional
Birth Attendants (TBAs) are the key stakeholders in practicing and delivering
traditional neonatal for the disadvantaged population in villages, slums,
tribal areas etc. Various studies on this issue have identified many practices
that are healthy for the survival and growth of the newborn. However, studies
also identify a number of hazardous practices that leads to many prevalent
causes of neonatal death such as sepsis, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, injuries,
tetanus and diarrhea. The lack of institutional care system and prevalence of
such harmful neonatal care practices are correlated to the higher concentration
of neonatal death in villages, slums and traditional communities. Some of these
practices are described here briefly to understand their impact.

Harmful Local
Neonatal Care Practices

Health Consequences

Home Delivery by Untrained Individual

More than one
third of deliveries in the rural areas are conducted outside health
institutions. One in every four deliveries is conducted by untrained
individual/person in the villages.

Common
practices in slums and rural areas identified by number of studies reveals
that most of the newborn were given a bath immediately after birth.

Bathing immediately after birth causes
hypothermia and may lead to death

Delay in Breastfeeding

According to
the latest SRS data, during 2012-13 as high as 3.72 million newborns in India
were not breastfed within one hour of the birth

The delay in breastfeeding and feeding
baby with any liquid and solid food other than mother’s milk before the age
of six month is a harmful practice for health and survival of the newborn.

Asphysia Care

To clean the
airway of secretion, the newborn needs to be held upside down and the back
slapped immediately after birth. Many studies found that there is a lack of
knowledge about asphyxia in communities across the country and also amongst
traditional birth attendants.

Asphyxia is one of the major causes of
the neonatal death in India. Common community practices such as holding the
baby upside down and patting or massaging it, blowing in the ears, sprinkling
and dipping it in water and making loud noises are harmful for the newborn

Postpartum Hygiene

Umbilical
cord care is a big issue in villages, tribal areas and in the slums.

Cord cutting and tying practices in
rural India is one among high risk factors for neonatal infections. The blade
is commonly used to cut off the umbilical cord in rural and geographically
difficult areas but following the steps of clean cord care remain a problem.
Most people lack knowledge about sterilization of the blade and after care.

Policy
Responses and Way Forward

The entire cycle of reproduction and
local cultural practices are intertwining. There are number of good neonatal
care practices but we have also witnessed a number of harmful practices that
fuel mortality of newborns. It shows us that the issue is not just medical but also
has social dimensions. Indian Maternal and Child health policies have always
addressed social aspect in various ways. In the last decade, National Rural
Health Mission promoted community level interventions through ASHAs. However,
TBAs remain the main source for delivering both good and bad community
practices. The Indian policies never took TBAs seriously to involve them in
health system other than providing them some skill trainings. There were no
serious efforts to exchange knowledge between TBAs and modern medical
professionals. Health system needs to accommodate TBAs and consider their
community influence, traditional knowledge and skills along with knowledge gap to
promote better neonatal care in the country.

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

“Hundreds
of thousands of impoverished "low caste" Indians are being forced to
clean human excreta from dry toilets and open drains, despite a ban on the
discriminatory and undignified practice”, reports Human Rights Watch (HRW) in
its recent publication in August 2014. It is a shameful truth that reflects the
discrimination practised by society and the state towards one of the most vulnerable
sections of the population, the Dalits.

﻿﻿

Manual Scavenging is not only dehumanising but also dangerous.According to the Tata Institute
of Social Sciences,
80 per cent of the manual scavengers die before they turn 60 because of health
problems and accidents. In the last decade, 98 manual scavengers have died in
Gujarat. This figure was gathered by Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam, in reply to an
RTI query and was published by the Times Of India in April 2014.

Despite
legislations prohibiting employment of manual scavengers and demolition of dry
toilets, the 'Houselisting and Housing Census 2011' data in March, 2012 shows a
bleak picture. Its estimation of insanitary
ordry latrines in the country is
close to 26 lakhs. Though there is no credible data on the exact count of manual
scavengers in the country, various surveys and sources have suggested that
there are approximately 11 lakhs manual
scavengers in India.

Legislations
banning the practice alone cannot change the social realities. There are number
of legislations to eliminate manual scavenging like The Civil Rights Act, 1955; the Construction of Dry Latrines and
Employment of Manual Scavengers (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and the recently enacted Prohibition of
Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. However, the
twin evils of insanitary latrines and manual scavenging persist.

Our
society has to challenge and break free from the internalised caste hierarchy,
empower the minds of the manual scavengers and change the attitude of the state.

Attitude of the society

Manual
scavenging is a manifestation of the rigid caste system in India. Manual
scavengers belong to one of the Dalit sub-castes and are considered lowest in
the caste hierarchy. The society, time and again has treated Dalits as
untouchables and reserved the humiliating job of cleaning excreta only for them
thus reinforcing the idea of untouchability based on occupation. A child born into
a family of manual scavengers is denied the basic rights guaranteed under the
constitution. Manual scavenging as an occupation is passed on from one
generation to another.

In the rare occasion when a manual scavenger
challenges the social structure and his position in it; s/he is threatened by members
of higher castes, and ostracized to the extent that s/he is denied food entry
to communal land to feed their livestock, and other facilities necessary for his
survival. The community in which the manual scavenger lives does not allow them
to break free from their caste based roles.

Lack of political will of the State

Government institutions like municipal corporations,
village councils, railways and defence are the largest violators of the law and
perpetuate the problem by continuing to recruit manual scavengers and failing to
demolish dry toilets.

Indian Railways

Approximately 43,000 railway coaches are engaged in the
passenger service, and there are about 1, 72,000 insanitary toilets which
discharge the human excreta on the railway tracks that require the services of
manual scavengers. Intrigued, the
high court ordered an inspection of bio-toilets led by a team of senior
advocates P S Narasimha and Rajiv Nanda. In their status report to the court,
the advocates described work on bio-toilet installation as being extremely slow
and criticised the Ministry of Railway’s timid target of installing only 500
bio-toilets.

Municipal Corporations

A recent survey report by Manav Garima, a community
based organisation fighting against dry toilets and practice of manual scavenging
have brought to light the existence of dysfunctional toilets under the aegis of
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). Located in slums, these toilets do not
have proper sewerage system, water facility etc. Also, not every household has a separate toilet.
People are forced to defecate in the open. The survey which looked at few
sample areas found out that there were 126 areas where manual scavenging was practised
and there were 188 dry latrines. To make the situation worse, AMC built 30 new
dry toilets in the Nagorivad area of Ahmedabad.

A survey conducted in a few villages of Dhule in
Maharashtra, by the Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan showed that 162 women and 90 men
were hired by panchayats and municipal corporations to manually clean toilets
and open defecation areas.

Challenges faced by people and breaking the silence

People who continue cleaning human excreta do it involuntarily
under great social pressure, poverty, illiteracy and often because of the extreme atrocities they experience when
they seek alternative job opportunities.

As
reported in the Human Rights Watch publication, the manual scavengers face
resistance not only from the members of higher castes but often from local
officials like Pradhans who refuse to give manual scavengers any in

formation or
assistance in getting a job card. As a result, manual scavengers are deprived
of work opportunities provided by MNREGA.

The
fear of demanding a new life and accepting the humiliation as fate is the
greatest challenge. There are many schemes and legislations to provide education,
alternative job opportunities, trainings to manual scavengers, but these
benefits and opportunities alone cannot change their situation unless every
single manual scavenger refuses to clean other’s excreta. Until then, when a
manuals scavenger denies cleaning the dirt, there is another manual scavenger
ready to do his work. Hence, it is
crucial to make manual scavengers aware that such dehumanising work is illegal and
by mobilising them their voice can be made to be heard not as an individual but
as a group.

Role of Social Movements towards defending the right’s
of manual scavengers

In contrast to constitutional safeguards, some
civil society movements have been able to bring to the forefront the massive
discrimination faced by manual scavengers in India.

Safai Karamchari Andolan

Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA) is a national
movement working towards eradicating manual scavenging, by organising and
mobilising the community around the issues of dignity and rights, accompanied
by strategic advocacy and legal interventions. SKA’s efforts helped to uncover
the fact that government
departments including Railways, Defence, Judiciary and Education are violators
of the Manual Scavenging Prohibition Act. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed
in the Supreme Court by SKA and 18
other civil society organisations in 2003. As a result, the Supreme Court gave strict orders to all
the states and central ministries to address the issue of manual scavenging. In
2010, for the first time 23 hearings were conducted in the state of Haryana and the act
was enforced and 16 members were taken into custody for violating the law and
employing manual scavengers.

Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan

Launched by Jan Sahas
Development Society, the “Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan” is a national campaign for dignity
and elimination of manual scavenging. The Abhiyan has liberated 11,000 manual
scavengers in Madhya Pradesh. By organising sanghatans
or community-based organisations, it has mobilised manual scavengers and
empowered them to oppose all kinds of discrimination. Liberated and empowered,
manual scavengers have taken the lead in putting an end to this practice. The
campaign has been taken to other villages and states. In December 2012, the Rashtriya
Garima Abhiyan, also organised a two-month long march ‘The Maila Mukti Yatra’ across
18 Indian states that liberated thousands of manual scavengers.

Similar success
stories have been showcased by other national and local level movements which have
successfully spread awareness and empowered manual scavengers and helped them
fight against their own fears and challenge the rigid social structure and government
institutions that are responsible for depriving them of their rights to live in
dignity.

Journey towards changing mindsets

Manual
scavenging is “shame of the nation” said Mahatma Gandhi. The fight to end manual scavenging is more
than one individual’s struggle; it is a struggle of the nation. Social
movements have shown positive change by bringing people together. For a change
to happen at a large scale, it is important for all the segments of the society,
including civil society organisations and the state, to join hands and fight
against the violation of human dignity.

Legislations
and schemes prohibiting manual scavenging, as modernising India’s sanitation, are important. But for effective implementation
of these, mindsets of people, society and state needs to undergo change. Synergised
efforts towards challenging the caste structure, changing the mindsets of
people involved in scavenging and people employing them as scavengers can make
a significant positive difference.

Thursday, 30 October 2014

India is a country which embraced Federalism at the time of
independence from Colonial rule with many nations existing within its ambit. A
noteworthy instance in acknowledging the Federal polity in India is that of
Jammu and Kashmir and Article 370 of the constitution which grants the state an autonomous
status. Since the BJP-led government assumed office at the Centre in May 2014,
the idea of abrogation of this article has been gaining steam. However, this
move may jeopardize India’s already fragile relations with the state of Jammu
and Kashmir and may lead to a forced Balkanisation of the state and defeat the
idea of Cooperative Federalism with which article 370 was enacted.

﻿﻿On July 11,
2014, the Supreme Court of India dismissed a petition challenging the
constitutional validity of Article 370. A bench of Chief Justice RM Lodha,
Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman dismissed the
plea by Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha, who argued that the article was a temporary
provision that lapsed with the dissolution of the state's constituent assembly
in 1957.

However, the impact that this proposed move would have on
the Indian Federal structure are lost in the din of political rhetoric. Why has
this article been the most debated one among all the provisions of the Indian
constitution? What is the BJP’s interest in abrogating it and what impact would
this action have on not only the people of Jammu and Kashmir, but also India as
a whole? These are some of the aspects explored in this essay.

Brief
History

At the time of independence, J&K was a Muslim majority
state with a Hindu ruler, Raja Hari Singh. The state was a bone of contention
between then newly formed Pakistan and India. Being a Muslim state, Pakistan
demanded that the state be a part of that country while upholding the ideals of
secularism, India staked claim at it.

There was no provision in the British approved partition
plan which stated upfront that the Hindu Princely state must accede to India
and the Muslim states to Pakistan. The accession of Junagadh was an example of
the ambiguity consequent to this. Jinnah accepted the accession of Junagadh to
Pakistan in 1947 despite it being predominantly a Hindu province and later a
people’s movement revoked that decision and Junagadh became a part of India.

Article 370 was a result of a refusal by the Hindu
King Raja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir to join either India or Pakistan
after partition. In order to retain sovereignty of the state, despite
Pakistan’s claim over it owing to a Muslim majority in line with the two-nation
theory, led to the state’s monarch siding with the Indian side under special
circumstances. All the other princely
states had chosen sides among the two countries, however, owing to a political
movement under the leadership of Sheikh Abdullah (Father of Farooque Abdullah;
later formed the National Conference), who was opposed to merging with
Pakistan, J&K was granted a special status. In 1947, coming under attack
from NWFP tribes, an Instrument of Accession was signed between Hari Singh and
India which agreed upon maintaining the state’s sovereignty unlike other
princely states. What this meant in effect was that other than specific matters
including defence, communications and foreign policy, the Indian Parliament
would have to seek permission from J&K State Assembly before implementing
any laws in the state. The article was accepted in the Constituent Assembly in
1947 and was adopted in the Constitution in October 1949.

In 1949, PM
Nehru asked Abdullah, who was appointed as the PM of J&K to prepare a draft
of the article (then called Draft Article 306-A) to be appended to the
Constitution in consultation with Dr. Ambedkar.
The then Law Minister Dr. Ambedkar had refused to draft the article on
the grounds that while Abdullah wanted India to defend and develop Kashmir and
that Kashmiris have equal rights all over India, the same rights must not apply
to citizens from other parts of the country in Kashmir. He felt that it was a
betrayal of the national interest. On his refusal, the article was eventually
drafted by Gopalaswami Ayengar who was a minister without a portfolio in the
first Cabinet of India and a former Diwan of Hari Singh. After being introduced
in the Constituent Assembly, the draft Article 306-A faced extensive
opposition, with only Mualana Azad standing in its favour. However, with Pandit
Nehru’s backing, it was adopted and implemented, initially as a temporary arrangement, with hopes of a full integration
in time to come.

The idea of a Plebiscite in J&K to uphold the
people’s voice of the state in framing the state’s constitution was taken up
briefly in the beginning, being discarded eventually in 1949. The Constituent
Assembly of J&K which was to be consulted for any Central Law to be
implemented in the state was constituted in 1951 and dissolved in 1957 and in
the absence of such a body, abrogation of the article 370 is simply
unconstitutional.

Government’s
interest in revoking article 370

The BJP has indicated in the past that once in power, it
would work on abrogating Article 370. Now that they have a government at the
Centre, this seems like an impending reality. A junior Minister in the Prime
Minister’s Office, Jitendra Singh recently said in a statement “We are in the
process of repealing Article 370 and are in talks with the stakeholders,” starting
fresh speculations on the issue. Also veteran
BJP leader L K Advani, in his blog, called for the same in order to facilitate
Kashmir’s further integration into the country. This blog was a tribute
to the founder of Jan Sangh, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who died in a jail in
J&K in 1953 while leading agitation against the article.

The
reason for BJP to want the article gone is rooted in the history of how it came
about. Being a Right-wing Hindu Nationalist Party, the BJP maintains that after
the implementation of Article 370 in J&K, Sheikh Abdullah was appointed the
Prime Minister of the state. He brought about reforms in the state, especially
pertaining to land which adversely affected the Kashmiri Hindus (especially the
upper caste Pandits) and led to them being relegated in their social standing.
The land-owning Hindu community, as a consequence to the law limiting maximum
land individual holding of 22.75 acres, lost their land during the
redistribution process where any surplus land holdings was distributed among
the peasants who worked on it, mostly Kashmiri Muslims. This led to the idea of
land redistribution mistaken for communalism.

Moreover, since 1950, on several occasions, various
provisions of Article 370 have been overruled by Constitutional orders. As it
stands now, out of 395 total articles in the Indian Constitution, 135 are
alm0st identical to that of the J&K Constitution and 260 articles have been
applied to J&K making the article virtually irrelevant. Although,
officially, J&K still enjoys an autonomous status, in reality, the state is
farther away from autonomy now than it was at the time of independence.

Unfortunately,
the larger implications of scrapping this legislation would impact India’s
relations with J&K, a state which agreed to be a part of the country on the
sole condition of retaining its autonomy. Any attempts at abrogating this
article, would therefore, fuel the already-existent mass resentment against the
Centre. The article, as it is, hasn’t been followed through in entirety,
however, scrapping it completely would lead to a further trust deficit in the
people of the sate towards the Union. For the BJP too, to move past the labels
of being a majority-appeasing, radical Hindu party, it is important to drop
this issue. Moreover, PM Modi, in his Republic Day message this year as the
Chief Minister of Gujarat had emphasized on the critical importance of a
vibrant and functional federal structure in India as the Centre may not always
be able to do justice to the potential and needs of various states. Repealing
article 370 wouldn’t uphold the same vibrant and functional federal structure
he spoke about.

Abrogating the article a mistake

There
is a widespread opposition in the state against speculations of the Centre
abrogating article 370 with the current government being politically opposed by both, the
separatists and the NC.

Article 370
grants the state of J&K special provisions with regards to its political
structure. This article, according to the constitution, can only be abrogated
or modified by the President with the nod from the state government and an
approval by the state’s constituent assembly. By this definition,
constitutionally, the article cannot be abrogated because J&K’s constituent
assembly was dissolved in 1957 after the accession of the state was deemed
complete and ceases to exist now.

Since 1956, when
the Indian constitution was amended at Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad’s insistence,
J&K has slowly but steadily been losing the powers it was guaranteed under
section 370. In 1957, the Delhi Amendment was applied to the state, abolishing
the Sadr-e-Riyasat and PM position in J&K, replacing them with Governor and
CM. There started the complete dilution of autonomy.

The provisions
of the article have time and again been ignored by respective central
governments in India and consequently, it has already been diluted to an extent
of only remaining as a symbolic right to the people of J&K. However,
abrogating it completely would send out a message to the Kashmiri population
that the Centre has failed to recognize the state’s autonomy which was the
essential condition at the time of accession. In an environment of an already
high level of distrust in Kashmiris towards the Indian state, this move could
be seen as an attempt to completely disregard their voice in the constitutional
process, that they have no right over their own political fate.

Essentially, the
problem is in the perception of how the article is seen by the central
government and the state. The state sees it as a constitutional right to
autonomy and self governance while the Centre sees it as an extended temporary
provision which has run its course.

In 1949, India
had taken the matter to the UN and thereafter, several resolutions were passed
relating to it, most of which concluded that bilateral negotiations between
India and Pakistan would be the only way to solve this conundrum. Despite that,
there hasn’t been much said about the issue by either of the countries openly
in the recent times, although, tensions remain on the surface.

There have been
attempts within India to solve the tensions between the Centre and the state
leadership, Beg-Parthasarthy Accord of 1975 being one of them. In 2010 also, a
special group headed by Justice Saghir was sent by then Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to negotiate the terms of article 370 with the state. However, none of
the efforts by any of the governments has yielded any concrete positive
results.

If this article
is abrogated, the next step would be the Balkanisation of the state into Jammu,
Kashmir and Ladakh regions at the behest of the Centre. History proves that
such a move can have only a detrimental impact on the people of such states.
States emerging from erstwhile Yugoslavia serve as a reminder to this grim
reality.

Conclusion

The call for
abrogation is also indicative of a complete misunderstanding of Indian
federalism which is founded in the theory of unequal federalism. The
constitution has abundant provisions providing special status to various other
states too. Then there are the Fifth and the Sixth Schedule for the Tribal and
Northeastern states. Would these be revoked too in time to come? How then would the centre protect the rights
of those who have neither sufficient representation nor, adequate opportunities
for progress? This unequal but special provision guarantee these protections to
the most marginalized and neglected communities in India, revoking their rights
would result in a sure descent into a similar undemocratic structure which our
founding fathers opposed and fought against.